The Great Babysitting Adventure
by MegaWallflower
Summary: Kairi's Grandmother has to go out for the day, but with the rumors of people disappearing and an aura of darkness settling in the town, she can't leave Kairi unsupervised! Enter our two very capable babysitters. Will things go as smoothly as they hope, though? Starring Kairi, Lea, and Isa. Complete!
1. Chapter 1

The sun shone brightly down on Radiant Gardens, as a gentle breeze blew through the flowers. It wasn't past noon yet, so it was relatively empty. Then again, it was always a quiet town. That's not to say little disturbances didn't happen from time to time, however... 

Kairi hastily straightened out her bed sheets while her grandmother watched over her for a few more minutes. After she had considered her bed nice and neat enough, when she thought her grandmother wasn't looking, she put just a few toys under her bed. There was no time to put them back in the toy box yet, after all, and she was going to play with them too soon for that, anyway.

Kairi heard her grandma cough purposefully, meaning she'd been caught in the act. "I'll put them away after the I show the baby sitter, though, grandma!" she pleaded. "I just really really wanna show them those because they're my favorite and I want to show them! Please, grandma?" Kairi begged cutely.

Her grandmother didn't have time to tell her otherwise... her babysitters would be here any minute now. She just laughed amicably and said, "Well, I can see you're excited, Kairi,"

Kairi nodded happily. This was her first time getting a babysitter. She smiled as she looked around the house and saw how clean she made it. Her new babysitter was sure to be impressed!

There was something missing, though... Kairi crossed her arms and rested her chin on her hand as she tried to figure it out. Something she needed to add to the living room, so the babysitter would be sure to see it... "That's it!" Kairi ran back into her room and returned with a clay vase she made herself and a few of her hand-picked flowers from Aerith. The vase was misshapen and the flowers were a bit withered by now, but Kairi still loved both. She'd put a lot of effort into making the vase as a gift for her grandmother, after all, and the flowers were a gift from Aerith, even though Kairi didn't have any munny to give her at the time.

She set them on the coffee and table in the living room proudly."It's perfect, grandma! Right?" She looked to her grandmother for approval.

Her grandmother smiled at the little girl. She was so energetic, always happy and bouncing around. And she thought of herself as more mature than she was, at times. She was starting to worry that the babysitter- who was late, she suddenly noticed- wouldn't be able to take care of her very easily...

The door bell ring and Kairi yelled, "I'll get it!" as she ran to the door happily and stretched to reach the door knob. Her grandmother hadn't even had the chance to reach the door first. Kairi smiled as she opened the door and greeted her babysitter... Wait, two? She had two babysitters! She hopped giddily as she introduced herself. "Hi! I'm Kairi!"

A boy with spikey, bright red hair and bright green eyes bent down and ruffled the young girl's hair. "Hey, Kairi. The name's Lea. Got it memorized?" he asked playfully.

Kairi made a pensive expression and chanted, "Lea, Lea, Lea," to make certain she had it memorized, as he had put it.

"So I can trust you to watch Kairi for the evening? I have to step out for a few hours and I can't take her with me." Kairi's grandmother asked, looking at both of the boys carefully. Kairi continued to chant Lea in the background as she watched her grandmother scrutinize the two boys. "You're awfully young yourself."

Lea smiled. "Don't worry, I'm great with kids!" he bragged.

"Because you _are _one." His blue hair friend pushed him and added, "Don't worry. I'll make sure everything goes smoothly. Please excuse my friend, he's not very bright. Isa, at your service."

Lea was about to object to that, but Isa elbowed him lightly to keep him quiet.

"She can be a bit of a handful, though..." the grandmother warned. Kairi stopped chanting and pouted at the remark. She was very good, in her opinion.

"Nothing we can't handle!" Lea said, pushing Isa out of the way. "Trust me, I can take anything she throws at me!" He tried to make himself look bigger and stronger, but Isa and Kairi bother chuckled at the attempt, while the grandmother frowned.

Isa sighed and shook his head. "We've got it under control. We won't fail you."

"I don't know..." the grandmother said, seriously reconsidering all of this.

Lea and Isa exchanged worried glances. They needed the money for this...

"Grandma, can I come with you, then?" Kairi asked. She wasn't even sure where her grandma was going, but she said Kairi absolutely could not come along with her. It made her really curious, actually... Maybe now she could go, if she wasn't allowed to stay with the babysitters.

"...Be good for them, Kairi," the grandmother decided. She really couldn't take Kairi along this time... If she could, she would. She wrapped her arms around Kairi and pulled her into a loving hug.

"I will, grandma! I promise!" Kairi said, giggling. She'd changed her mind really fast...

Kairi waved as he grandmother walked to wherever she had to go alone so badly. "Bye, Grandma!"

When she was no longer in sight, Kairi turned and stared at the teenagers curiously as they argued.

"What kind of friend are you?" Lea asked angrily.

"The kind that remembers why we need this munny to begin with." Isa shot back, glaring at him. "It was _your_ fault in the first place, was it not?"

Lea recoiled and chuckled. Did Isa have to remind him again? "Oh yeah, _that_! Ehehe..."

"What?" Kairi asked, looking up at the two boys.

Lea turned to look at her, just remembering she was there, while Isa sighed in exasperation. They couldn't explain something like this to a child.

"What's _that_?" she asked again, putting the same emphasis on it that they had. Maybe that would get her an answer.

"Oh, that!" Lea said, chuckling a little. "Uh, you see, I-" Lea started, but Isa covered his mouth.

"It's nothing," he lied quickly.

"But you guys were talking about a _that_..." Kairi persisted, crossing her arms in frustration.

Lea pushed Isa off of him and smiled down at Kairi. "Forget_ that_, let's have some fun!"

"Right... what do you do for fun, anyway?" Isa asked. He'd never been too great with children, so he might have to follow Lea's lead this time...

Kairi glared, puffing her cheeks out. She didn't want to just back down that easily, after all. They were the ones that mentioned it, and she wanted to know, too! "But _that_!"

"There are toys somewhere around here for you to play with, aren't there?" Isa asked, annoyed of this already.

Kairi sighed, but she decided to let it go, for now at least. She took Lea's hand and tugged him towards her "Okay! Come on, I have really fun toys over here!" She pulled him back to her room, and Isa followed behind.

When they reached her room, though, Kairi closed the door behind Lea. "You can't come in, Isa!" she yelled. "Until you tell me _that_!" Kairi wasn't just giving up on that, yet.

As Kairi held the door closed, though, Isa pushed forward, with far more force than she could muster. "No!" she whined as she was pushed backward. "No Isas allowed!" Kairi pushed forward with all her might, but it only served to slow him down.

Lea laughed. "Just let her cool down, Isa. Unless you want the whole day to be like this between you two."

Isa sighed and slowly back up, careful not to just stop and let Kairi literally push the door in his face. "...I guess I'll make snacks or something?" He said through gritted teeth.

"Snacks, snacks!" Kairi cheered. Lea joined in and cheered, "Snacks, snacks," as well, just to further irritate Isa.

"We'll talk about this later, Lea," Isa called before walking back up the hallway, towards the kitchen. He plopped in a chair and took deep breath. This wouldn't be as easy a job as he thought it would be, but this was nothing he and Lea couldn't handle. Even if this little girl was being difficult and Lea seemed to be encouraging that. They just had to make sure nothing bad happened with her, after all. She didn't have to get along with him for that. Just an afternoon with this brat, and it'd be over... 

"So, Lea, Lea!" Kairi cheered. "These are the toys I wanted to show you!"

Lea leaned against a wall and watched as Kairi groped around under her bed for 'd been against this whole thing, but this was going to easy. And maybe even entertaining.


	2. Chapter 2

Isa looked through the cabinets for a juice box. Little girls liked those, right? Or would she want a carrot or something instead? No, they liked sweet things, didn't they? So should he try to find a cupcake or something? Where did they put those here? Isa tried to find a note or something- there had to be something explaining what to do for their meals, right? The grandmother hadn't left one, though, and Isa had no idea what to get the young girl. He didn't need her throwing it back at him, after all, so it had to be something she didn't hate at least...

Bemused, Isa decided to give up on the issue for now. While he looked for a snack, he spotted his favorite fruit: a banana. Smiling, he figured that he at least should grab something to eat first; maybe it would even help him think.

As he peeled the banana, he silently admitted to himself that Lea might have been right; this job wasn't as easy as Isa had planned. Lea's reluctance to take the job had been due to laziness, but now Lea was handling it better than Isa. How was he going to live this down? Grimacing at the mere thought, he bit into his snack, hoping Lea was too preoccupied to think about ways to hold this over Isa. 

Lea leaned against the wall and watched as Kairi dug around under her bed. The energetic child pulled out a story book and proudly showed it to Lea. "Grandma wrote this, and I drew all the pictures inside!" she bragged happily, opening it up and fanning through the pages to show Lea, who was barely paying attention.

"Oh, nice ones, yeah," Lea said, nodding. The pictures were what he'd expect from someone Kairi's age, from what he could see of them. There were bright colors, scribbling outside the lines, a smiling face on the sun, etc.

"Right?" Kairi agreed, paying too much attention to the book itself to notice Lea's lack of interest. "Grandma says my pictures are all so pretty, I could be a artist someday!" Kairi smiled bashfully and put her book back on the floor. "I don't know if I want to be one, though. I don't know what I want to be. Maybe a..." Kairi paused for a moment and glanced back under her bed before turning her full attention to Lea. "Lea, Lea!"

"Hm?" Lea tilted his head, watching as Kairi hopped excitedly once again. Did this girl ever run out of energy?

"What are you going to be when you grow up?" Kairi asked, trying to imagine him as everything she could think of. "A firefighter, a baker, a prince, a ninja, a police officer, a scientist?" Kairi giggled when she imagined Lea in a lab coat. "No, not a scientist..."

"What?" Lea said, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow inquisitively, both offended by the implication and curious as to what she meant by that. "Why are you so sure I can't be a scientist? Doesn't seem very hard to me. That windbag Even can do it, so it can't be too hard."

Kairi shook her head, still giggling at him. "No, you'd be a weird scientist," she said bluntly.

"Oh, really?" Lea huffed. "And I'm sure you just want to be a princess, right? That's what all little girls want to be? Well, you'd be a weird one, for sure."

Kairi stopped giggling and glared up at him. "Nu-uh!" she protested, "I'm already a Princess! Grandma says so!"

Lea laughed. "Trust me, if I'm a weird scientist, you're an even weirder princess!"

Kairi crossed her arms and shook her head. "Am not! I'm a very good princess! But you know what I'll be when I grow up?" Kairi knelt down and reached under her bed until she felt her fingers brush against something wooden: the toy sword she'd finally convinced Cloud to let her have.

Lea laughed even harder as he watched Kairi pull out her beat up wooden sword and try to look menacing. "I'm going to be a knight when I grow up!" she proclaimed proudly.

"Stop laughing! I'm really, really strong!" Kairi swung the sword erratically with as much force as she could muster. "Really!" Kairi added for extra emphasis.

"Really?" Lea asked as he finally stopped laughing. "I'm sure you are, Princess. But you want to see some real weapons?" He smirked and pulled out two frisbees from seemingly nowhere, each with a flame design and smiling face with razor sharp teeth in the center of the flame. "Tada! Pretty cool, right?"

"Whoa!" Kairi stared at them in rapt wonder, practically hypnotized by their faces. "They're so cute!"

Lea grinned haughtily, spinning them in his hands."Haha, yeah, they're pretty- cute? No, these are not cute, they're _awesome_ and_ cool_!"

Kairi finally snapped out of her daze and smiled up at Lea. "I-I have something awesome and cute, too!" she cheered. She set down her sword and got on her knees to once again paw under her bed. This last toy had managed to go farther underneath it than she had intended, so it took longer to get than the sword and the book had.

Finally, Kairi pulled out doll from under the bed. It had long, blonde hair made of yarn that went over her left shoulder, a white dress, off-white angel wings, closed eyes, and a gentle smile . She smiled and hugged it close to her. "My grandma made this for me," Kairi said, a little more softly than she usually spoke. She held the doll up to give Lea a better look at her. "It's really pretty and really soft. You can hold her, too. Her name is Nana."

Lea tilted his head as he stared at the doll, wondering if she was really going to make him play with it. Lea really hoped she didn't pull out a tea set, too, any time soon.

"Lea!" Kairi chided, holding Nana higher and pouting in frustration. "Don't you wanna hold her?"

Lea considered saying "no", but it was pretty clear that Kairi didn't want to take that for an answer here; he might as well just play along for now. Lea sighed and took Nana tentatively in his hands, holding it at arms length. "Hi, Nana..." he said, a little awkwardly, dusting some of the dirt from her dress. He was glad Isa wasn't in here, because he would never let Lea live this down.

"No," Kairi scolded, trying to sound mature. "You have to hold her like this." Kairi pretended that she was cradling the doll in her arms. "Because she's a baby. It makes her happy to be rocked, too, just like this." Kairi rocked her arms side to side and hummed a gentle melody, as if she was caring for a baby.

Lea stared from the doll to Kairi a few times before tossing the doll back to Kairi. "Yeah, I think I'll pass," he said with disinterest. He _wasn't_ about to cradle a doll in his arms. "Any other games you have in mind? Actual games?"

Kairi rushed to catch Nana before she hit the ground, and almost dropped the doll as she caught it. "Why would you throw her?" Kairi scolded, still trying to sound grown-up. "You might have hurt her! What kind of mommy are you?"

Lea scoffed and rested his arms behind his head. "It's just a do..." he started, but suddenly he realized exactly what Kairi had accused him of being. "Wait, I'm the mommy?" Either this girl had trouble telling girl's from boys, or... Lea wasn't sure what else it could be, actually. He played with the spikes in his hair, wondering if they were somehow "girly".

Kairi giggled at Lea's reaction. "I know boys are supposed to be the daddies, but I'm always the mommy. I want to be the daddy this time. I never get to be. And you said you want to play a game." Kairi smiled and hugged her doll close again. "The game is pretend. I'm pretending to be the daddy, and you're pretending to be the mommy. And Nana is pretending to be our daughter!" Kairi held the doll up to Lea again and gaily added, "Now apologize to your daughter!"

"She's a doll!" Lea protested adamantly. "I am not saying sorry to a doll!"

Kairi continued to stare daggers at him, but after a minute or two, Kairi relaxed and set Nana on the bed. "Okay, we'll play Princess, instead," she said, still a little upset.

"I am not about to be the Princess!"

"Of course not." Kairi smiled as she explained the terms. "Nana is the pretty princess. You are the dragon that won't let her go. And I," Kairi picked back up her sword and pointed it towards Lea. "am the knight that has to beat you!"

Smirking playfully, Lea held up his frisbees. "This, I can do." 

Isa stretched briefly, finally deciding to head back to the others. Juice boxes should work fine after all, he decided. A smile spread across his face. After calming down and having some peace and quiet, he'd tried to look at this a little differently; maybe this wouldn't be so bad. He'd never been very good with children, but maybe that was just a bad first impression on both of their parts. It was a long shot, but it wasn't impossible. And he couldn't survive this if she kept this up, so even if he didn't really care what the brat thought of him, it was better that this end without her complaining to her grandmother.

He took a juice box in each of his hands and headed back towards her bedroom.


	3. Chapter 3

Kairi didn't wait for Lea to make the first move. He was the evil dragon, after all, and it was her job to defeat him for her fair princess! "Hya!" She called as she lunged towards him, trying to seem more intimidating than she was.

Lea easily parried her ineffective blows with frisbees, barely having to move them as the small girl seemed to be aiming for the weapons rather than Lea himself. The older boy tried to hold in his chuckles as he watched this little one-sided struggle. "Had, enough, yet?" Kairi asked between strikes.

Lea burst into laughter at that, almost tearing up. Kairi stopped attacking and stared up at him in confusion. What was he doing?

"Right, right, sorry," Lea said as he tried to catch his breath from laughing so hard.

Kairi crossed her arms across her chest, glaring at Lea now. He was laughing at her! "Lea!" she demanded. "The dragon isn't supposed to laugh at the knight!"

"Well, you make it hard not to," Lea quipped. "Why do you even have that thing if you don't know how to use it?"

"I _can _use it!" Kairi protested, waving her wooden blade eccentrically, almost managing to hit Lea's legs.

"Okay, okay!" Lea stumbled back before the hard wood hit his legs. "You asked for it! Roar!" Lea spun his frisbees in his hand for a moment, standing tall and trying to imitate a dragon. When he saw the small girl giggling at his impersonation of a dragon, he took the chance to strike, but he only tapped her gingerly with the frisbee, remembering that she was just a little girl.

Just that was enough to excite the small child, though. Kairi flitted around her room as Lea gave chase. There were few places for her to run, so she turned around and tried to parry him back. Again, Lea was able to evade all her attacks, but now it was Kairi chasing him.

He was even more restricted in the space he had, so he quickly fumbled with the lock on the door and pulled it open, rushing out into the opening as Kairi managed to slightly nick his leg. 

Some laugh off a bit of unexpected chaos they encounter. Some embrace it, some even play along. Isa was no stranger to this, as his best friend had gotten them both into quite a few ... Awkward situations, to say the least.

But when Isa saw the door fly open and he was knocked back, catching only a glimpse of red as his eccentric best friend and their charge for the afternoon, Kairi, ran past him towards the living room, he was not about to laugh it off or let it slide for either of them. He reddened in anger as he felt one of the juice-boxes leaking onto his favorite jacket. This brought-out an unusual side to the stoic bluenette, his eyes pinched shut, and a nerve stuck out, "That's it," He yelled, "Both of you-"

He was cut off by the sound of a loud crash and shattering, followed by the sounds of someone crying, made him open his eyes shock. Isa tried to put aside his anger for the moment as he ran to see exactly what had happened.

Of course, the one crying was Kairi. She wasn't wailing, or being obnoxious about it; she sniffled and whimper as tears rolled down her cheeks. Much differently than Lea did as a child, Isa recalled briefly.

Isa noticed broken pieces of clay on the ground next to Kairi, while Lea stood back, looking a little shocked about it. So the shatter had come from one of them knocking over a vase. From Kairi breaking the vase, it seemed. "What happened in here?" He asked, although he already had a good idea.

Kairi pointed at Lea and said, between sniffles, "Lea broke my vase!"

"What?" Lea asked, waving his arms innocently. "It wasn't me!"

"Yes it was, I saw you!" Kairi shot back.

Isa stomped his foot loudly, refusing to sit through an argument between these two children. "Kairi, go stand in a corner," he ordered. "Lea, I think I saw the broom and dustpan back there. Clean up this mess."

Kairi gaped at Isa in disbelief. "But I didn't-"

"GO!" Isa shouted, causing both Lea and Kairi to jump in fear. He rarely got this angry, but when he did, it was best not to exacerbate matters.

Kairi ran to the corner nearest to the door while Isa accompanied Lea down the hallway, still obviously fuming.

Kairi pouted and wiped away her tears. She was the one who should be mad! Lea broke her vase! And now he was blaming her!

Kairi was already tired of having babysitters. She wanted her grandmother back, instead of these meanies. And Kairi refused to stay here with them another second.

Kairi turned away from the wall and stuck her tongue out in the general direction of the boys, knowing they couldn't see her. Then, she opened the door and ran out, trying to guess where in town her grandmother might have gone. She would still be in town, right? "Grandma?" the girl called, hesitating to leave her yard for a moment. She glanced at her house once more before she took off running towards town. 

"Lea, I'm not playing a game! What were you two imbeciles doing in there?" Isa yelled, still enraged from before.

"I'm telling the truth we were just playing some game she came up with! Princess!" Lea stood with his back to the wall, and his voice shook only slightly as he tried to explain his situation to his friend. "Okay, not like regular Princess with the tea parties and crap, but where she was the knight and I was the dragon and we were fighting over a princess. I didn't mean to hit that vase, though, I wasn't aiming for it but my frisbee-"

"So you broke the vase!" Isa groaned, annoyed. "How foolish can you be... And I haven't forgotten about you, either, Kairi!" Isa called, towards the front of the house. "That wall is not your punishment!"

Lea grabbed the dustpan and broom, knowing better than to argue with Isa when he was this mad. Lea left Isa in the hallway to give him time to calm down while Lea cleaned his mess. He stopped in his tracks as he noticed the door ajar and no one waiting in the living room. "Isa, I think Kairi ran away," Lea called.

Lea could hear a loud thud- Isa hitting the wall, probably, before his friend finally calmed a little and said, through clenched teeth. "Go. Find. Her."

"It'll hardly take any time at all, Isa. I can catch a kid, no problem. Just leave it to me! Got it-"

"Lea!" Isa shouted, clearly near to the point of partial insanity.

Lea jumped, "I'm going; I'm going!" Lea muttered "memorized" as he slipped out of the door, trying to think of where Kairi might have gone.

Isa, on the other hand, took breaths to calm himself down again. "I am never babysitting again," he said to himself before he went to clean the broken clay up. He'd follow after Lea in a few minutes, but for now, he really needed to be away from both of them.


	4. Chapter 4

"Kairi! Kairi, come on, Isa's gonna kill me!" Lea called as he looked through the immediate area. Such a small girl couldn't have gotten far, right?

As he scoured the last bush in the yard, though, it was clear that, at the very least, she wasn't there anymore. It wasn't exactly a one-way route from there to town, however, so he had no way of know which way she decided to run.

Isa, meanwhile, had finally calmed down. He expected Lea to have some kind of results by now, but when he walked out of the house, he noticed Lea still in the yard, empty-handed. "Lea, you still haven't gone after her?" Isa asked.

"She's not around here," Lea muttered, looking up from his search. "She shouldn't be that far already, though. Any ideas?"

After a second spent pretending to think over the issue, Isa said matter-of-factly, "Yes, actually." He gestured back towards the house, specifically to the spot where Kairi's vase had been earlier. "She might have gone to find more flowers, since the ones from that vase are destroyed. She could find those anywhere… but she'd probably find the best flowers from Aerith, if that's what she wants."

"Oh, yeah, Aerith!" Lea exclaimed, smiling. He straightened up and patted a few stray leaved from his clothes. "I'll go see her, then."

"I knew you would," Isa said, nodding. "Just remember that you're not going over there for anything other than Kairi, okay Casanova?" Isa smiled slyly as his friend shook his head. Isa chuckled when he noticed that Lea's ears were almost the bright color of his hair, but it was hard to tell with how vigorously Lea was shaking his head.

"I know, sheesh!" He crossed his arms over his chest and added, "I heard she's with Cloud, anyway."

"Really?" Isa asked, sincerely shocked about that. "I had thought that Tifa…" he stopped himself and finally closed the door to the house. There were always rumors like that floating around anyway, right now it didn't matter whom Cloud was dating. "Time is of the essence, just go find Kairi."

"Oh, right." Lea gave a quick wave before sprinting in the flower shop's direction.

Isa idled behind, trying to think of another place to start his search. He had given his only lead to Lea, so he had little choice but to just look around and hope for the best. He'd be lying if he said he had enough faith in Lea to sit here and wait for him, after all.

Kairi finally stopped to catch her breath when she figured that she was far enough not to be seen. She looked around for a moment to regain her bearings.

Oh, she knew this route! Just a little further and she could get to the Central Square. Maybe that's where her grandma went!

She dodged the larger people around her as she pushed onward towards Central Square, but she stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning around, she breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't Lea or Isa after all. It didn't take Kairi long to recognize the distinctive dark haired girl with brown, almost red, eyes. "Tifa!"

"Kairi," the teen greeted. "What are you doing all alone out here? Haven't you heard? It's dangerous."

Kairi shook her head slowly, trying to remember hearing anything like that. Nothing came to mind, though. "No..." she said quietly, instinctively glancing around moving her hand to touch her necklace. "Why's it dangerous?"

"People have been disappearing," a deeper voice answered from behind Kairi. She turned around and saw a boy about Tifa's age with spiky blond hair and bright blue eyes.

"Cloud, there you are!" Tifa walked to his side and fondly put her arm around him. "I was starting to get worried. What would I do without my knight?" she said with a gentle smile.

"Why are people disappearing?" Kairi interrupted. What if her grandmother was one of the people? Was that why Kairi couldn't come along?

Cloud simply shrugged. "There have been rumors, but no one knows for sure. Just gone, without a trace..." Cloud looked pensive for a second before adding, "Probably kidnapped."

Kairi's eyes widened and she began to shiver. Kidnapped? Kidnapped? But... but she'd never heard of something like that happening here before... Despite Kairi's attempts to keep from crying, her eyes started to water. Tifa smiled and knelt down, noticing the girl's fear. "Don't worry, Kairi. Just be careful, and I'm sure you'll be okay. You're a tough kid."

Kairi sniffled and wiped away her tears. She had to be tough... for her grandma! She had to find her, quick! Managing a shaky smile, Kairi nodded at Tifa.

"Are you out here with your grandma?"

Kairi shook her head again and looked around. The crowd was small enough that if her grandmother were among it, Kairi would know. "I think she's in Central Square... I'll go see." Kairi immediately took off running, but stopped and turned around to wave goodbye to her two friends. "Bye Tifa, bye Cloud!" She saw Tifa and Cloud wave back before Kairi turned back around to keep going.

"Lea? Are you here to buy flowers?" Aerith asked, looking up from her garden at the red head. She hadn't expected to see him here. "What are you looking for?"

"A rare breed actually," Lea joked. "Red, purple, and white. I think it's called a... Kairi?"

Aerith raised an eyebrow inquisitvely. "Kairi? As in, cute little girl that plays in the flowers, Kairi?

"First of all," Lea started seriously. "She's devious and -"

"By devious, you mean she pulled you into a game you didn't want to play?" Aerith asked, giggling. "A little bold, but not exactly evil..."

"Hey, it's not my fault!" Lea protested.

"What isn't you fault?" Aerith stood up and patter the dirt off of her blue and white dress. Her bangs swayed slightly in the breeze while the rest of her long, brown hair, tied in a braid, lie still behind her. Looking to Lea with her green eyes, she asked, "Did something happen?"

"Yeah, well..." Lea laughed nervously and avoided meeting her gaze. "See, me and Isa are babysitting and we kind of... _misplaced_her."

"Misplaced her?" Aerith repeated, laughing at his word choice. "She ran off? Really, Lea? What did you guys do?" She stopped laughing and smiled reassuringly at him, taking his hand. "Kairi hasn't come by here today, but I'm sure she'll turn up. Just work a little harder to keep her next time!"

"But I have no idea where she ran off to, and we have to hurry and find her before her grandma comes back!" Lea argued.

Aerith placed her hand under her chin as she thought this over for a moment. Silently, she walked past Lea and closed her eyes, listening for something in the wind. Lea followed her and mimicked her actions. It was kind of calming, but not exactly helpful, so he stopped after a few seconds and just stared at Aerith.

"I know!" Aerith exclaimed, opening her eyes and beaming at Lea. "Try Central Square, she likes to go there!"

Lea tilted his head quizzically. He'd rather not just keep running around to places she liked to go, considering how well that worked out this time. Still, he had no other leads...

"Aerith!"

Lea and Aerith turned and saw Cloud and Tifa. "Cloud! You and Tifa picked up everything, right?"

Tifa nodded and held up the basket of groceries. "As requested! I'll get started on lunch." She started to walk inside, but stopped and added, "Oh, and we ran into Kairi while we were out. Hope she's okay... Didn't see her grandmother with her."

"Seriously?" Lea asked. "Where'd she go?"

"Towards Central Square..." Cloud said, a little suspicious. Tifa nodded and closed the door behind her. "Why?"

"Um..." Lea glanced at Aerith and noticed her slightly sly grin. "Long story." He didn't bother trying to explain before he rushed away, but from the sounds of it, Aerith was taking care of that. Great...


	5. Chapter 5

The small girl looked around, still breathing a little heavily from the run here. Kairi's grandmother was nowhere in sight, she realized. However, there was one familiar face.

An older boy with silvery hair sat on a bench eating an almost perfectly-square turkey sandwich. Kairi had seen him once before, near the fountains, but he hadn't said a single word then. She hadn't even learned his name, in fact.

Unexpectedly, the boy stopped eating to stare at her now with an odd inquisitiveness. Kairi stared back for a moment before she smiled and waved at him. "Hi!"

"Hello," he greeted with a small nod. "Kairi, right?"

Kairi gaped at him, too surprised to respond at first.

"Staring is uncivilized," he informed her as he returned his attention to finishing his sandwich.

"Oh, um," Kairi stuttered for a second before a smile spread across her face. "You talked!" She ran to his side and pulled herself onto the spot next to him on the bench. "What's your name?"

He swallowed the food in his mouth before he answered. "Ienzo."

"Ienzo…" She wasn't sure what else to say, so Kairi absentminded swung her legs in the air. Ienzo went back to silently eating his sandwich, so he didn't offer any conversation. In the silence, Kairi let her mind wonder back to her grandmother and the disappearances around town. "…Hey, Ienzo, did you know?" she said to break the silence.

"Do I know what?" Ienzo asked as he finished his snack.

"People have been disappearing!" she whispered, starting to shake. "Maybe they were kidnapped! Or grandmanapped!" Kairi touched her necklace gingerly and frowned. "We have to be really careful."

"Oh, I have a feeling I'm safe," Ienzo said, and for a split second Kairi would see a bit of a smile on his face. No, a smirk? A grin? A giggle? It was gone too quickly to tell what it was, or even be sure it had really been there.

She didn't dwell on that, though. "That's good," she said, returning her signature smile to her face. "Why do you think they're disappearing anyways?"

Ienzo shrugged, and this time Kairi was sure that she saw a smile. "Perhaps whoever is doing it has their reasons."

"But kidnapping people is wrong!" Kairi argued.

Ienzo simply shrugged, seemingly expecting that response. "Maybe you are too young to understand," he noted.

Kairi was about to argue that, _nu-uh, she was a _big_ girl_, but an older man with long blond hair and icy blue eyes called out to Ienzo before she could get the words out. Kairi turned to him and noticed that he was in the same coat white coat as Ienzo. "Is that your dad?" Kairi asked instead. Evidently, this was the wrong thing to ask, as Kairi realised when she saw Ienzo's expression as the boy just sighed and shook his head. "Um, I-"

"That's a colleague of mine. Even," Ienzo interjected.

Kairi took the hint- that wasn't a subject he felt like discussing. "Colleague?" she asked, tilting her head and trying not to wonder why Ienzo was reluctant to talk about his dad.

"It's something like a partner," he explained patiently.

"Like a friend?" Kairi suggested.

Ienzo thought it over before answering, "No, not exactl-"

"Ienzo, are you listening?" The older man almost sounded angry about being ignored. "It's time to return."

Kairi hopped down from her seat and smiled up at Even. "I'm Kairi, Ienzo's friend! It's nice to meet you, !"

Even looked from Kairi to Ienzo, who simply stood back up and shrugged. Even turned his attention back to Kairi, studying her pensively.

Kairi stared back up at him, noticably confused, before she remembered why she came there in the first place. "Um, mister, have you seen my gran-"

"Kairi, I knew you'd be here!"

This time, Kairi recognized the voice. She ran behind Ienzo for protection. "Go away!"

Lea panted and stared at the three of them. He didn't feel like causing a scene over this, and Even was a pretty notorious stick-in-the-mud, so he tried to think of to just coax the girl to listen. Throwing on a friendly smile and forcing a chuckle out, he said, "Kairi, come on... I'm your friend."

Kairi shook her head and scowled at him from behind Ienzo. "You're not acting very friendly!" she argued, blowing a raspberry at him. Ienzo shied away, hoping she didn't get any saliva on his lab coat.

"Kairi, we're not playing the game anymore, you win, okay?" Lea tried, sighing.

"I'm not playing a game, I'm doing something important!"

"Oh, come on! You're just running around the town!" Lea crossed his arms, glancing at the little boy Kairi was with. "What, did you come all the way here just to meet up with your friend?"

"I have nothing to do with this," Ienzo denied, holding up his hands innocently.

"No, I have to find my grandma!" Kairi shouted at Lea, loudly and shrilly enough to make all three boys cover their ears for a moment. Kairi took the chance to turn around and run again.

As soon as his ears stoped ringing, Lea started running to catch her, Even stepped in his way. "Old man, I don't have time for this!"

"'Old man'?'' Even repeated, aghast. "You will do well to respect your elders, young man. You are one of those heathens Dilan and Aeleus caught sneaking into the castle, correct?"

"Yeah, yeah, I learned my lesson, I won't do it again," Lea said dismissively, trying to look past Even. Where had Kairi run to? "Will you just get out of my way?"

Even looked at the youth comtempuously before stepping aside. "Such insolence," he muttered in disgust.

Lea couldn't care less what about Even, but somehow Kairi had managed to disappear again. It hadm't taken him that long to handle Even, and there was no way she'd left the area again. Still, with another aggravated sigh and an quick glare at Even, Lea sprinted down the street he was pretty sure Kairi had gone down.

Even smirked at the glare before he turned down to Ienzo. "You seem to have made quite an interesting friend, Ienzo. A heart naturally void of even a trace of darkness..."

Ienzo responded, but they had started walking back to the castle, so the voices trailed off as they discussed more of the fragile nature of hearts and how their recently started experiments were going. When they were far enough away, Kairi took the chance to immerge from her hiding place, a low shrub, and patted some of the leaves off of her dress. She frowned at the stubborn green stains that stayed in the fabric of her dress, but she remembered that she had other, more important thing to take of at the moment. She looked around to make sure the coast was clear, smiling when she didn't see anyone. Now she could focus on finding her grandmother again!

"Boo!" Kairi jumped at the suddenly shout that came from behind her, looking back to see who had snuck up on her.

"Squall," Isa greeted when he ran into the slightly older boy.

"Isa?" Squall asked, looking around for the fiery boy that always seemed to accompany him. "It's kind of weird to see you without Lea."

Isa laughed. He could say the same regarding Rinoa, but that was beside the point. "We had to split up to do a search. Do you know Kairi?" Isa held his hand to about Kairi's height. "This tall, red hair, blue eyes..."

"Why are you looking for Kairi? You don't seem like the type to like children very much, Isa."

Both boys turned to the girl with long raven hair and bright brown eyes that smiled almost mockingly at the two of them. "Well? I guess I was wrong about you, if you play with Kairi. She can be a little hard to keep up with."

"Rinoa?" Isa sighed. "No, I'm not a big fan of children. Especially not one so demanding. Lea and I were babysitting and he let her run off."

"Babysitting? Does this have to do with that thing you guys did before?" Squall asked curiously, trying not to laugh. "I guess you would need more than a little damage control after that."

"Aw, I'm sure you'll find Kairi. Squall keeps trying to give me the slip," Rinoa explained, walking over and putting her arm around him. "But I'll always find my way back to him!"

Squall shook his head. "And what if _Kairi_ just wanted alone time?" He argued.

"Alone time is always better with a friend you can depend on there with you, right?" Rinoa said, pulling him into a hug.

Squall glanced at Isa. "Is Lea this bad?" he asked jokingly, earning a light smack on the head from Rinoa.

"Almost," Isa chuckled.

"That just means the bonds will stay, though," Rinoa said, letting go of Squall but not leaving his side. "I bet you that Lea and Isa, and me and Squall, will always be together. We won't let anything tear us apart, not even you guys," she joked.

"Well, that's a scary thought." Isa retorted.

"And sadly, it might be true," Squall said in the same tone, but he had a smile on his face. "Oh, right, you were looking for Kairi, right? If she's mad at you, it shouldn't be too hard to make her listen. She's stubborn, but not impossible."

"She'll probably be anywhere where there are flowers," Rinoa added. "She's a nice girl once you get to know her."

Isa shook his head. He doubted it, but it really didn't have time to waste here. He glanced at the sky, shielding his eyes a bit with his hand, to get an approximation of the time. Well, at least he wasn't particularly pressed for time, but he still had to find her. "If neither of you have seen her, I guess I'll just keep looking."

"Good luck!" Rinoa called, waving as Isa left.

Isa waved back half-heartedly, absentmindedly wondering about what Rinoa had said. Not about Kairi, of course, about the two pairs never separating. Well,Squall certainly couldn't lose Rinoa even if he wanted to, although most of the town knew he didn't. And as for Lea...

Isa smiled. He'd always be stuck with that loser. If nothing else, he knew that much.


	6. Chapter 6

"Yuffie, that wasn't very nice!" Kairi pouted and crossed her arms at the older girl, but she could only keep up her serious demeanor for a second before she started laughing along with the older girl.

"What are you doing sneaking around?" Yuffie asked when she finally stopped laughing. "Are you trying to be a ninja like me? I knew I was the best role model." She grinned and proudly struck a pose.

"You're a real ninja?" Kairi whispered excitedly, as if it were a huge secret she was being let in on. She was fond of stories of all kind, and could remember reading with her grandmother a story about the mysterious and stealthy people who could hide in shadows and sneak up on the bad guys without ever being discovered. The more Kairi remembered the cool tales about ninjas, though, the less her friend seemed to match the description. Which was why it occurred to her that it may have been a secret identity, like in some other book she and her grandmother had read together. So, instead of saying, "But you're not in the outfits they had in the books," -since, admittedly, her a green and yellow hoodie and white shorts were pretty eye-catching- Kairi imagined Yuffie being quiet and stealthy and wearing one of the body suits the ninjas had worn.

It was a little hard to imagine, but Yuffie had just managed to sneak up on Kairi, right? Kairi giggled all the same at the idea, or maybe out of an excited giddiness she suddenly had. Maybe, if she couldn't be a knight, she could be a ninja, like Yuffie!

Yuffie grinned and pointed proudly at herself. "Yup, I am the champion of the earth and the sky! I am the conqueror of evil! The single white rose of Radiant Gardens! The great ninja Yuffie!" she bragged. "Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"

Kairi clapped. "So you really fight bad guys?"

"Absolutely!" Yuffie lied, grinning even wider. "They'll run screaming when they see me! Radiant Gardens is safe in my hands!"

"Can I be a white rose, too?" Kairi asked, practically bouncing from trying to contain her excitement. "And Aerith, Aerith would make a good rose!"

"But I'm the single white rose of Radiant Gardens, remember, Kairi?" Yuffie reminded her.

"Oh..." Kairi said, standing still for a moment before regaining her excitement. "Then I will be a red rose! Or a blue tulip! Or a purple long-beaked filaree!" Kairi beamed as she managed to say the last flower's name just as Aerith had. Kairi didn't remember a lot about what Aerith had said about the plant itself, but the flower's petals had reminded her of her dress. Kairi imagined the three flowers growing side by side, the rose and tulip both taller than the little filaree.

As she was thinking about them, she decided that maybe she should make up with Lea and Isa after all... They would probably have a lot more fun if they were play together than if they were just running around like this.

"No, Kairi, you're too young to defend the town! It's my duty as the strongest and best fighter here!"

Kairi opened her mouth to argue that she thought that was Tifa or Leon, but closed her mouth and remembered what she was out there for in the first place. She didn't have to apologize to Lea and Isa- not now, anyway. Her goal- her _duty_, like Yuffie had said it, was to find her grandma and warn her about being kidnapped. She was somewhere all alone out there, after all! Kairi had to be brave and save her! "Yuffie, have you seen my grandma?" Kairi asked hurriedly.

"You mean you wandered off?" Yuffie asked, stretching. "No, I haven't, but I'll tell you if I do."

"I didn't wander off from grandma, but... my babysitters Isa and Lea were being mean and..." Kairi pouted and looked at her feet. "I wasn't being very nice either, I think, but then Lea broke my vase and I got in trouble for it, and there are kidnappers in town, and, and-"

"Whoa," Yuffie shook the little girl to calm her down. She had started speaking so fast that Yuffie could barely make out a word she was saying. "What about Lea?"

Kairi frowned and looked up at Yuffie. "Are Lea and Isa nice?" she said instead of repeating herself. Kairi had seen them around town plenty of times, since they were hard to miss, but the two of them never really paid much attention to her. "Because they're bigger," she was told, but Aerith and the others didn't seem to mind having her around. Isa and Lea, on the other hand, barely noticed her at all, even when she tried to play with them.

Yuffie thought for a moment about the two older boys. "Well, Isa can be kind of boring sometimes, but he's not bad. Keeps Lea in order. And Lea's almost as good at pranks as I am," she said with a smile. She got an almost dreamy expression as she went on. "Almost. They're both really cool once you get to know them! They're not really the type for kids, but if you were a little older, I'm sure you and Lea would make great friends. He's not hard to befriend, either –he's always 'picking up stray puppies' as Isa calls it. That's how we met, at least."

Kairi played with the front of her dress for a little while as Yuffie kept going on about Lea in particular. She wondered why she wasn't mentioning Isa very much if they were always together. But more than that, as Yuffie continued her reverie, Kairi wondered if she should have been a better friend. It wasn't very knight-like— or princess-like, as her grandma was always comparing her to a princess instead of a knight— for her to just run off on them like that. If they decided to apologize, she decided she would too.

But only after she found her grandma. "Thank you, Yuffie," Kairi said sweetly before she waved and walked off again. Where could her grandmother be if she wasn't there? Kairi thought about other places she and her grandmother had been recently.

"The fountains!" Kairi exclaimed.

"You're sure you haven't seen her run through here?" Lea asked again in exasperation.

Lea ran out, narrowly dodging a thrown wrench and ignoring more profanity from Cid. Rubbing the back of his head, Lea muttered, "A simple 'no' would have freaking sufficed!"

"Lea! You okay?"

Lea almost fell back when he recoiled from the shock of seeing Yuffie so suddenly. He tried to laugh it off and rubbed the back of his head nonchalantly. "No bumps or bruises. Either the old man's getting nicer or his aim is getting worse." Hearing another thud from behind him that sounded like it almost broke the glass on the shop door, Lea added quietly, "But his hearing's dang near perfect."

"Then let's get outta here before he hears anymore," Yuffie suggested, just as quietly. She took his hand and run before he could even reply, so he had to run just to keep up with the hyperactive ninja.

"Hey, Yuffie! Why are we running? We're far enough away now!" Lea argued, starting to pant. He hated being dragged along. Now that he thought about it, he was usually the one that dragged Isa along with him everywhere.

Yuffie suddenly stopped and let go of his hand, turning around quickly and starting with, "So, Lea—" and Lea struggled in a failed attempt to stop as quickly as she had, ending up almost falling on top of the smaller girl. He managed to catch himself at the last moment and straighten up after a moment of being awkwardly close to the younger girl.

Yuffie laughed, seeming to forget she had been in the middle of saying something. "Oh, oh wow, your face is as red as your HAIR!" she managed to say between chuckles, ignoring her own blush.

"Yeah, yeah," Lea said, glancing away indignantly. "Weren't you in the middle of saying something?"

Yuffie held her hand up and kept laughing. "Okay, okay…" She coughed and straightened up, making a show of how hard she had to work not to start laughing again. "You're like a tomato! Or a bell pepper!"

Lea rolled his eyes. "Well, that was a very enlightening conversation, but I really have to go. See ya around, Yuffie," he said, waving and turning around.

"Are you sure?" Yuffie said, having somehow rushed in front of him. He stepped back, startled, but she seemed a bit more serious now. "I've heard some whispers here and there, you know. It may not be safe to be alone." Yuffie grinned mischievously. "After all, people have been disappearing more and more lately, and what about that rumor of a monster seen running around?"

Lea rolled his eyes. "That's just some scary story. Ansem The Wise, himself, said it was nonsense."

"Did he? Or did we hear that from his lackeys?" Yuffie asked, as if this was a quiz. "Besides, I heard you and Isa certainly seemed to believe it. Why else would you—"

"You guys have got to let that die eventually!" Lea interrupted.

Yuffie held up her hands innocently. "Point taken, but you still did it, and you're even in hot water for it. All because you wanted to see if there really was a monster. Well, I heard some interesting whispers from people who live in the castle, and for the right price, I'll tell you everything I know. It might be the difference between life and death for you and Isa." Yuffie thought for a second and added, "And for Kairi, too, you know. You guys are babysitting her, right?"

Lea sighed. "Fine, what's your price?" he asked, just wanting to get rid of her quickly. "…Wait. How did you know we're babysitting?"

"Kairi mentioned it."

"Where is she?!" Lea demanded.

Yuffie snickered mischievously. "Top-class information like that would cost extra, you know."

"…Didn't you say she might be in danger, though?" Lea argued. "Didn't you say you were the great hero ninja of Radiant Gardens or something? It would be on your head if she's abducted, too, oh great hero."

Yuffie thought for a minute or so before relenting, "I'll collect my payment later, but she was at Central Square last time I saw her. I'd hurry if I were you, though. She's quick for such a little kid."

Lea was about to point out that Yuffie was practically just as much of a little kid as Kairi, but opted to rush to Central Square instead. Kairi was almost proving to be more trouble than this job was worth –almost.


	7. Chapter 7

Isa would usually not go to the castle guards to ask for their help. He and Lea had had plenty of run-ins with them, but Isa usually was making it a point to avoid them focus on sneaking into the castle before those inevitable run-ins happened.

But he wasn't the type that considered himself too proud to ask for directions, at least.

So, with the straightest face he could muster, trying to act like he had never had a less amicable meeting with them, he walked up to them and got to the point. "Have either of you seen a little girl with auburn hair in a purple dress, about this tall?"

Of course, the guards pretended they hadn't even heard him. Isa rolled his eyes. "Blue eyes? Probably picking flowers or something?" he added.

Dilan and Aeleus glanced at each other, but still ultimately didn't answer.

"You guys are kinda useless for guards…" he muttered, giving up and turning to walk away.

"Red hair, purple dress, blue eyes…"

Isa nearly jumped in surprise when Braig appeared as if out of nowhere and put a hand on his shoulder. Instead, though, he just looked slightly miffed and took Braig's hand off of his shoulder.

"You wouldn't happen to be talking about Princess, now, would you?" Braig said.

"Princess? You mean Kairi?" Isa turned towards him and demanded, "Have you seen her? Where did she go?"

"Man, something sure has you riled up, huh?" Braig shrugged. "Heh, is the little princess giving you trouble? I'd think you should chase after some older girls than her, but I guess you're into that."

Isa facepalmed, suppressing an annoyed groan. Lea could be a handful, but at least he had some redeeming features. Braig was more childish than Kairi and easily the single most annoying person in Radiant Gardens. He'd have to remember this in case he ever got lucky enough to pull the shots on Braig. "I guess you're speaking from experience, old man…" Isa said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"As if. I'm a hit with the ladies." Braig made a grand gesture with his hand, as if he was insulted by the mere implication. "Well, I guess you and firecrotch don't need anyone's help getting into trouble. Sneaking into the castle and breaking one of THE Ansem the Wise's toys? Y'know if you're not careful, one of these days you might find something of yours broken. Wouldn't want that, right kiddo?"

"That would be childish revenge…" Isa said, glancing to the side. "We already said we'd get the money to pay for that."

"Easy there, kiddo," Braig threw his arms up. "I'm just saying. Lots of scary rumors lately. People disappearing. Monsters crawling up from the shadows. Just seems like you're the kinda kid who might wet his pants from seeing crap like that."

"I don't buy into silly rumors at face value," Isa said. With an accusative voice and sharp eyes, he added, "And if something strange really is going on, surely the Kingdom would have its most 'trustworthy' elite scientists working around the clock to keep its people safe, right? Although… wouldn't it be something if somewhere in the castle laboratories is the cause of all the problems in the first place? Shame only our trusty scientists can get down there."

Braig threw his head back in laughter. "You're not bad, kid. You must think you're some kind of detective." He straightened up and put on a sly grin. "I'm pretty sure I saw Kairi near the fountains, now that I think about it. Better keep an eye on the little princess, right?"

"…Thanks," Isa said, and took off running towards the fountains. Talking to Braig always felt like pulling teeth, and he didn't feel like wasting any more time on it. 

* * *

><p>The fountains were as colorful as ever. Kairi knelt down and looked at her reflection in them.<p>

Kairi's absolute favorite thing was the flowers that grew in the city, but if Kairi had a list of things she loved, the fountains would be high ranking for sure. Plus, her grandma always loved getting flowers from Kairi, but she spent more time admiring the fountains than admiring the flowers. The castle was probably her grandma's favorite place, but the castle was for Ansem and the people who worked with him, like the guards and the researchers. There was a public library in the castle that her grandma took her to so she could read, but Kairi couldn't read except for a few words her grandmother had taught her, so she didn't really go there without her grandma. And lately, even though Kairi wouldn't say so out loud, the castle scared her.

It's not that she was afraid of big places or anything. She considered herself a very brave girl, and she considered the castle guards and the researchers she actually got to meet her friends. And the castle would be the first place she would run to check for her grandma under normal conditions.

But lately the castle seemed… bruised. Like it was really hurt and crying out in pain, like Kairi when she was not so brave. She mentioned her worries to her grandma once, and she was a little afraid that she would laugh at her, but instead, she had said that she wouldn't let anything hurt Kairi, she promised. Kairi couldn't tell if it was because her grandma believed her or not, but it made her so happy that Kairi immediately responded by promising to keep her grandma safe, too.

But her grandma also told her that it was bad to be rude, and even if she was upset about a lot of things, she probably shouldn't have gotten upset at Lea and Isa like she did. She really, really needed to find them and apologize, after she found her grandma.

Kairi was so deep in thought as she stared at her reflection that she almost didn't notice when the shadow she cast in the water suddenly seemed a lot darker. She blinked, then closed her eyes and rubbed them, because no, that wasn't her shadow getting darker, but it was definitely a shadow, and she swore it was moving.

Something grew up out of the flat shadow and Kairi jumped back, falling and landing on her butt. It reminded her of that thing that had chased her before, but this was blacker and darker. It was twitchy, with yellow eyes that were looking right at Kairi. And it felt familiar, like someone Kairi knew. Someone who disappeared before. Grandma had assured her that they moved away somewhere all of a sudden, but Kairi couldn't shake the feeling, and her eyes started to water at the thought of what that meant.

She crawled back when it lunged at her and quickly scrambled up, looking for something to fight with, like that women who fought to protect her did before. It was all she could do to just avoid the thing, though. It didn't move that fast while it was up, but it kept turning back into a shadow and sliding around. She finally found a stick among the vines near the fountains and scooped it up in her hands and turned to swing at it, but it had disappeared into the ground again and she'd lost sight of it.

She looked around, holding her stick like that woman with blue hair had held her sword. She heard a rustle from behind her and turned around, holding up her sword to try to block its claws and letting out a loud scream.


	8. Chapter 8

Kairi's little stick was hardly managing to block the shadow's raking claws, and it snapped in half from just trying. Kairi was almost knocked back by the force, but she somehow managed to stay on her feet after she stumbled back a bit. Her face was red with fear and exertion from all the running and swinging that she had to do trying to fight the creature, and she still had not even managed a solid hit, but she refused to give up, against her better judgment.

The monster stopped and stared at her again, twitching neurotically, and Kairi took the chance to wave her broken stick at it in an attempt to fight. "Take that! And that! An—"

Her attacks did nothing but possibly annoy the monster, or maybe it just wasn't noticing at all. It returned to the shadows and started sliding around aimlessly again.

"I won't let you get away!" Kairi yelled, jumping and trying to stomp it down.

Before she could hit the ground, familiar arms wrapped around her and caught her.

"I guess Braig was telling the truth for once in his life," Isa said, clearly exasperated.

"Isa-I'm-sorry-and-also-there's-a-monster-and-I-have-to-fight-it—" Kairi rushed out in a single breath.

"Be quiet. Do you have any idea how hard it was finding you?"

"Look out, under you!"

Isa stumbled forward just as the monster resurfaced right under him. He regained his footing and turned around to stare at the thing that had tripped him up. "What the…"

"You have to let me go! I can fight it!" Kairi said. "I'll protect you!"

"We don't have time for this… We're leaving," Isa said, running away with Kairi in his arms.

"But Isa!" Isa ignored her and focused on running from the shadow that was sliding on the ground and giving chase. Kairi frowned and pouted, dropping her stick and crossing her arms, but she almost immediately softened and that turned into sadness rather than stubbornness.

* * *

><p>Lea sat down and leaned against the cool brick wall, biting into a sea-salt ice cream bar and sighing. "She's stubborn, I'll give her that," he muttered to himself, staring up at the rosy sky. "How long are we expected to keep this up?! It'd be just my luck that I'd been running all around town and Isa already found her forever ago!"<p>

The sky was as serene as ever, and the sound of running water was helping him calm down a bit. This part of town smelled like flowers, too, so he got rather comfortable. Now that he thought about it, he bet Isa really did have it done. Isa was always bragging about how he knew how to get stuff done. Lea could probably afford to take a break. He finished his ice cream and lay back, closed his eyes and stretched.

Then, the calming sound of running water was becoming replaced by the sound of screaming in the distance, which was becoming less distant by the second. He opened his eyes irritably, and, like flash across his vision, Lea saw a shade of blue that he'd seen plenty of times before dash past him in a blur, and a high-pitched voice call "Lea!"

The blue blur stopped and turned to look at Lea. Isa glared for a second, then rolled his eyes. "Taking a break, Lea?"

Lea was going to respond with, "Oh, you found her!" but Isa caught sight of something and jumped back, keeping his eyes trained on a shadow. The shadow rose up and Lea practically leapt back in fright. "Wha –what the heck is that thing!" he yelled instead, picking up his Frisbees and throwing one of them at the monster, managing to hit it. It was hard to tell if the hit did any real damage, but it certainly made the thing stop and look at Lea.

Isa put down Kairi and let out a huff, grateful for the chance to finally stop running. "I can't run toting her around. Do something about this thing."

"I'd love to hear some ideas then, because I don't even know what this thing is!" Lea said, but he listened to Isa nonetheless, retrieving his other Frisbee and using them as melee weapons against the monster. The twitchy little thing drew back for a moment, but then it scratched its claws at Lea, knocking a Frisbee out of his hand and raking Lea's skin. Lea pulled his hand back and shook it, cursing under his breath.

"Lea! You're hurt!" Kairi said.

"Are you okay?" Isa asked, putting his hand on his shoulder. "Just take Kairi and get back to her house. I'll handle this."

"Are you serious? You don't even have a weapon! I can handle this, you take care of Kairi and get out of here!"

"No!" Kairi ran out in front of them and stood between Lea and Isa and the shadow monster. "I won't let you hurt my babysitters!"

The monster lunged out to attack Kairi, but suddenly a bullet hit it and the monster faded away into darkness.

The trio could do little more than stare for a bit, but Isa was the first one to snap out of it and look to see where it had come from.

"Heh, well, well, well, if it isn't our little princess and her escorts!" their savior said, twirling his gun with a cocky grin. He was joined by a dark man with a focused stare, dressed in a white lab coat. "Wet yourself yet, Sherlock?"


	9. Chapter 9

"Mr. Braig!" Kairi ran over and tackled his legs in a hug, and Lea finally exhaled, only just then realizing he had been holding his breath. Isa, on the other hand, kept a focused, suspicious glare trained on Braig.

"Glad to see you're all still in one piece. It'd be quite the downer if our sweet little angel was sent back home early. Don't you agree?" Braig asked his companion.

Kairi let go of Braig's legs and stared at his companion. She didn't remember seeing him around before. Her grandma always told her that it wasn't polite to stare, but she couldn't help but stare at this man. There was a… strange feeling about him. Not good or bad, just… unique.

The man was staring at Kairi just as intently as she was staring at him. "That girl… There's a certain quality of… 'brightness' to her. It's hard not to notice." he said, finally responding to Braig's inquiry.

"Right?" Braig said, kneeling down and rustling Kairi's hair. Kairi closed her eyes and giggled. "Blinding, you might say. So sweet it makes you feel like she's giving ya cavities."

"…Um!" she lightly grabbed his wrist and looked up at him. "Thank you for saving me –for saving us!" Kairi said, bowing a bit.

Braig smiled and stood back up. "Hey, don't worry about it. You be careful out here. There are some scary rumors going around, you know."

"This isn't about rumors though… We saw that thing with our own eyes," Isa argued.

"Oh, yeah, there have been rumors like that. Do you guys know what they are?" Lea asked.

Braig shrugged and his cocky grin returned to his face. He seemed to be enjoying this, if nothing else. "As if. I'm just as shocked as you. But you should show a bit more gratitude to the person who saved your necks out here, right?"

"Then why—" Isa started, but Braig rolled his eye and turned around.

"As much as I'd love to make time for chit-chat, unlike you and Firebrand over there, we have lives that are currently swamped. Things to do, time to kill. RTC time, Xehanort," Braig said, not waiting for his companion as he started walking.

Xehanort kept staring at Kairi for a few more seconds before finally following Braig.

Kairi let out a breath and looked down, making her bangs obscure her face. Meanwhile, Lea and Isa exchanged a glance, both clearly more suspicious from those events. They both simultaneously looked up at the towering castle, wordlessly promising each other that they'd find out what was going on in there.

"…Well," Lea said, breaking the silence. "At least we finally caught Kairi! Now, are you going to come along quietly or do we have to drag you back, Kai…" Lea noticed that she seemed to just be sulking now. "…ri?"

Kairi didn't respond.

"Are you really going to be this difficult over a broken vase?" Isa asked.

Kairi shook her head, still not looking up at them. Lea knelt down so he was on eye level with her, although he couldn't see her eyes with how her head was lowered. "Look about the vase… I'm sorry, okay? It was my fault. Fair?"

Kairi looked up at him and it finally became apparent that she wasn't speaking because she had been crying. She bit her trembling bottom lip as tears streamed down her face. "I –I'm sorry Lea, I'm sorry Isa!" she choked out.

Lea stumbled back, unsure what to say. "H-hey, it was just a vase, don't get so worked up over it!"

"I'm not mad about the vase," she said, sniffling and trying to calm down.

"Well, you're the 'princess', right? So dry those tears and try to smile, okay?" Lea suggested hopefully.

Kairi frowned. "Mr. Braig always calls me princess, and I like Mr. Braig but…" Kairi took a few breaths so she could stop hiccupping from crying. "I don't want to be a princess, though. I always, always wanted to be a knight, like the woman who saved me. In the stories, it's the knight who gets to go on adventures and save people and have fun. The princess waits and worries and is scared and can't do anything. I don't want that, though. It's... it's no fun to have to wait and worry about your knights. I hate it... Like, what if my Grandma's in trouble? I had to wait, and I don't even know where to look. I'm scared, though, because what if the kidnappers found her and, and she's in trouble and I can't save her? I just want to be able to be there for people I love, but... but I can't, I know it. I'm too weak... I'm not a knight. You guys are knights. When you grow up, you'll go off on adventures and save lots of people and have cool powers, but I'll be a princess. I'll always be in trouble, and I'll always have to worry because someone will be in trouble be-because of me." Kairi sniffled again and tried to the wipe the stream of tears off her face and stop her nose from running so much, but it was all she could do not to break into louder sobs. "It's not fair... Why can't I be there to help...? I just want... to be strong... to protect..."

Lea shifted uncomfortably as he watched the small girl cry. What was he supposed to do? He glanced at Isa, but for once, the boy seemed even more confused than Lea was. Isa wasn't typically an open book, so the fact that Lea could read the uneasiness on his face wasn't helping him feel any better about this. Lea elbowed his friend to get his attention, and Isa quickly snapped out of it and glanced back. Sighing, Isa tried to think of something to say to calm the girl.

"You're not a princess. Princesses wouldn't be so unruly and messy," he said, noting how her nose was starting to run from all the crying.

Unsurprisingly, that didn't assuage Kairi in the slightest.

Isa knew Lea was giving him a disbelieving look at his choice of words, but he wasn't done yet. "Hey." he tried. "If you want to be strong, you can't be crying all the time. Princesses and knights don't cry. Don't you want to be strong like me and Lea?"

Kairi bit her lip and tried to stop her tears as she looked up at the blue-haired boy. She tried to speak, but she felt as though she had a huge lump in her throat, so she settled for a nod.

"Do you see us crying? We had to run around town looking for you all day, but even after that little ordeal we had, we're fine, aren't we?" Nodding pensively, he added, "And you weren't bad yourself there to have managed that long before we could get here."

Kairi sniffled again, but she smiled back, a larger smile. "Really?"

Isa chuckled now. "You've got a long way to go if you plan to ever be able to actually win a fight yourself, though."

"What Isa's trying to say is," Lea said, standing up and pushing Isa slightly when he saw Kairi's pout at the previous remark. "You can't just wait to grow up, and suddenly get the strength you need handed to you. If you have a dream, don't wait. Act. It's one of life's rules. Got it memorized?"

"Don't wait, act, don't wait, act, don't wait, act," Kairi concentrated as she chanted this to memorize it, just as she had done with his name.

"When did you become a philosopher?" Isa quipped jokingly.

"Since when could you talk to girls?" Lea quipped back, making both of them laugh. Kairi didn't really get the joke, but she joined in the laughter, too.

When they stopped laughing and Kairi had stopped crying, she finally said, "Isa, Lea… I'm sorry for being mean and running off to find Grandma. Can we be friends?"

"You'd really be a handful to have as a friend…"

Kairi frowned, and Lea rolled his eyes.

"Wow, Isa, you're such a charmer. This is why I'm your only real friend," Lea quipped.

"Ah, I do have Lea. He's easily more troublesome than you, so maybe it couldn't hurt after all," Isa said, his face as blank as ever.

Lea made a dramatic face, like he was truly wounded by the comment. "Ya see what I gotta put up with, Kairi? You really don't want to have a friend like him."

Kairi giggled. "I want a friend like both of you! You're fun!"

Lea and Isa exchanged a look and smiled. "If that's settled," Isa said. "Then let's return to your house now."

"Right behind you!" Kairi said, holding their hands and smiling as she walked.


	10. Chapter 10

Lea was out like a light as soon as they got back to Kairi's house, snoozing on the couch. Kairi offered to try to carry him to her bed –that's what her Grandma always did when Kairi fell asleep on the couch –but Isa said that he'd rather she didn't drop him and give him more brain damage than he certainly already had. So instead, Kairi just cheered Isa on as he carried Lea to her bed, then Kairi tucked him in herself and gave him her doll, Nana, to sleep with as an apology for being bad.

"Lea was kinda mean to Nana before," Kairi whispered to Isa as they left the room and shut the door, not wanting to wake Lea and Nana, who had apparently also gone to sleep. "But she forgives him. I think Nana has a crush on Lea. But that's a secret, okay?" she added frantically.

"Your… doll?" Isa asked.

Kairi nodded. "And, um… I was kinda mean to you guys, too, so… do you forgive me, too? Like Nana forgives Lea?"

Isa seemed to seriously think it over, making Kairi panic a bit. "I'm sorry! Really!" she pleaded.

"How sorry?"

Kairi dropped to her hands and knees. "I'm really, really, really sorry! Lea broke the vase and I was mad at him, but grandma always tells me not to be mean, and you guys helped me against the monster, and I like you, so I'm really, really, REALLY sorry!"

Isa rolled his eyes. "That's a bit much."

"But—" Kairi started.

Isa shook his head. "I forgive you. Lea's such a bleeding heart for stray puppies, I bet he's already forgotten why the whole thing started in the first place. Okay?"

Kairi hopped up and hugged his legs. "Then I can hang out with you guys sometimes? Will you come back and babysit again? Promise?"

Isa sighed. "All things considered, we'll probably have to."

Kairi cheered and did a very strange, flailing happy dance. "I'm going to draw pictures of us, then!" She ran off to grab her crayons and her pink, sparkly sketchbook, looking extremely focused.

Isa sat on the couch where he could watch her, since he certainly did not want to go on another little escapade again.

* * *

><p>In a few minutes, Kairi shoved the closed sketchbook in Isa's face proudly, making some of the glitter fall onto his lap. "I'm done," she said, a bit shyly for once.<p>

Isa took the book and started flipping through it. Most of the pictures had obviously already been in there and not scrawled in those first few minutes. It was pictures of the others in the garden. Some pictures of them happy with flowers, and, more recently, some of them fighting.

"That one's of Cloud fighting against Leon!" Kairi said, pointing when he reached the picture. "Cloud and Leon are really, really strong! And they have swords! They're just like real ones!" Kairi pretended she held a sword in her hand and slashed about, adding the sound effects she deemed necessary. "They're so cool, you should see it!" Kairi flipped the page for him and pointed at the next picture. "And Aerith has a pole thing that she swings around like this!" Kairi pretended she was holding Aerith's pole and swung at nothing in particular. "And Tifa, too!" Kairi turned the page again. "Tifa doesn't need a weapon, she punches things!" Kairi punched the air in an attempt to imitate the older girl's attacks. "And Yuffie's a ninja, didja know that? She said she's a flower!" Kairi flipped the page and pointed at the picture of Yuffie with ninja stars.

"We've met them, Kairi," Isa said in an unimpressed tone.

"But you'll never guess what I'm going to use as my weapon when I can fight like them and Lea!"

"Your toy sword?" Isa asked, feigning astonishment. "Amazing. Your enemies shall tremble before you."

"No, that's just for practice! I'm going to have this!" Kairi flipped ahead a few pages to where she drew her future weapon. "See, look, look, isn't it cool?"

"A giant key with flowers glued onto it will be your weapon?" Isa asked, taking the sketchbook and trying to make sense of the picture.

"It's like a sword but even better!"

"How so? A sword actually has an edge. This looks so blunt it's akin to a baseball bat."

"But I saw someone using it, and she was so cool! She even had magic and hers was blue and she and a giant mouse saved me when a black evil flying puppy thing was chasing me and -"

"You mean you haven't learned to tell the difference between your dreams and reality?" Isa asked, chuckling as he flipped through other pages of the sketchbook.

"It's the truth, she really was here! I gave her flowers and she gave me a magic spell to protect me on my necklace! I have a picture of her! Here, see?" Kairi flipped back to where she drew a picture of Aqua and King Mickey fighting the little blue monster from before.

"Right..." Isa answered, not really listening. He wasn't impressed by the quality of the pictures –why would he be, she was, what, four? -but the content of the journal made him smile in spite of himself. There were followed by pictures of Even and Ienzo, of Cloud with Aerith and Tifa, a few of Squall with Rinoa, and, one picture that almost made Isa laugh, Lea and Yuffie kissing. Most of the pictures after the ones of Cloud and the others were of himself, Lea, and her, believe it or not. "You should show these to Lea, I bet he'd get a kick out of them," he joked.

"You're not listening to me again, Isa," Kairi complained, but Isa could tell she was holding back a smiled.

"By now it really shouldn't surprise you, then," Isa quipped as he turned the page in the journal again. This time the picture was somewhat more crudely drawn than the others, so it took Isa a moment to figure out what he was looking at. When he finally could make sense of it, the implication hit him full force. "You drew yourself in a princess dress defeating me? Me? Really, Kairi?"

"I could!" Kairi said proudly, crossing her arms. "I'm a princess and a knight, and you're a mean old dragon. So it's my duty to defeat you!"

"Duty or not, you'd fail the task, O brave knight," Isa said, chuckling. "Especially if I'm a dragon. Last time I checked, princesses don't breathe fire."

"You don't get fire powers," Kairi explained. She hopped beside him on the seat and pointed at a blue and yellow streak. "See, this is your power."

"...What's that supposed to be?"

"A moon! 'Cause you're always looking up at space and the moon! Lea will be my assistant, and _he_ will get to have fire powers! And I get to have light powers!"

"What can I do with moon powers?"

"The moon and stars in space can give you powers and you can be like a were-dragon! Or a were-bunny, like the bunny on the moon!"

"I'll stick with the dragon."

"Dragon or bunny, me and Lea will defeat you!"

"I'm pretty sure Lea would be on my side, if push came to shove," Isa said with a shrug. "Your light versus a dragon and someone with fire powers?"

Kairi pouted, but her puffed cheeks and narrowed eyes were replaced with a sly grin. "I'm a princess and a knight, and I have Princess Nana on my side!" Kairi declared.

"Your doll again…"

"Or maybe all four of us can work together and instead of princesses and knights and dragons, we can be detectives!"

"Why are you counting your doll…? Detectives for what?" Isa said.

"Detectives for Radiant Garden! The rumor about the monster was true, and people must really be disappearing! So we can figure out what's happening and get to the bottom of it together!" Kairi declared.

Isa paused, then smiled. He was starting to think he and Isa had been the only suspicious ones, and Kairi seemed to be friends with Braig, so she might be of use somehow. "That actually sounds fruitful," he admitted.

"Right? We'll defeat the evil and save the town! I'll be a filaree, and you'll be a moonflower!"

"What?"

They were interrupted by a knock on the door. "I'll get it!" Kairi called, racing to the door and answering it. "Grandma! You're okay!" she said, giving her grandma a hug.

"Of course I'm okay," her grandma said reassuringly. "Were you a good girl?"

"A perfect little angel," Isa interjected quickly. "Lea's in the back straightening up. I'll go get him."

Kairi smiled and nodded, getting the hint. "We're friends, now, grandma!"

"That's good. I might have to go out a bit more from here on out, but I can count on Lea and Isa to take care of you while I'm gone, right?"

"Right!" Kairi said as Isa returned with a groggy Lea. Kairi moved out of their way as they passed. Her grandma handed the munny to Isa while Lea ruffled her hair.

"Come play again sometime, okay?"

"Of course!" Lea said. "We'll see ya when we see ya. After all, we're friends now. Get it memorized."

"I will!" Kairi promised, waving as he stood up to walk out with a slightly amused Isa. "Oh yeah, so grandma, where were you all day, anyway?" she finally asked.

Her grandmother closed the door and smiled. "I was just talking to an old friend about something."

"Who, who?" Kairi asked.

"Ansem."

Kairi's eyes grew wide. "Mr. Ansem the Wise is your friend? What were you talking about?"

"That's a secret," she said, putting her finger to her lips to show that she had to be quiet.

Kairi mimicked the motion and nodded dutifully, already full of ideas of what that must mean. Imagine, a secret, forbidden love between her grandma and THE Ansem the Wise? A surprise party in the planning? A science experiment? Whatever it was, she kind of hoped they could meet up again sometime soon. Kairi wanted to spend more time with her new friends. She smiled at the thought.

"Well, Kairi, for being so patient and waiting for me, I think I'll make you a treat."

"Are we making cookies? Oh, can I help this time? I want to be able to make cookies for Isa and Lea next time."

"Sure, Kairi. Come on."

"Oh, and could you tell me that story again before we start?"

"Again?"

"Please?" Kairi begged with puppy dog eyes.

Her grandma laughed. "Very well, then. Long ago…"


End file.
